ICC orders Pakistan cricket team to ditch smartwatches during play

ICC orders Pakistan cricket team to ditch smartwatches during play: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said to the Pakistani players to stop wearing smartwatches for the duration of play in order to avoid any allegations of match-fixing, bowler Hasan Ali stated the same post the opening day of the first test against England on the last Thursday.

The ICC’s anti-corruption team met the tourists post they play at Lord’s and warned the players against wearing the watches, that are capable of transmitting text or voice messages and functioning like a phone.

“I didn’t know who was wearing them but yes, the ICC anti-corruption officer came to speak to us and they told us this is not allowed,” Hasan said after Pakistan dominated play, bowling England out for 184 before reaching 50 for one at the close.

“Next time nobody will wear them.”

The ICC does n’t permit players to carry communication devices to the field which also maintains a ban extends to the dressing room also.

Officials are permitted specific devices in order to communicate with their colleagues and friends, at the same time because at this time they perform their duty.

The Local media reports said that the 2 Pakistan players were wearing the watches, though there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing so this is not clear if the devices were connected to phones or not!

In these recent years, the Match-fixing has become a major concern for the ICC.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, Pakistan’s trio, who is in the current side, were part of a gambling-inspired plot which was the part of to bowl and no-balls at pre-arranged times for the period of a test match against England at Lord’s in August 2010.

All these 3 players served time in prison and were handed multi-year bans from the game post a tribunal found them guilty of spot-fixing.